Push and Pull
by RosyRain
Summary: Everyone wants to be a hero, believe it or not. It's just that the meaning of being a hero is different for every person, and that's where the lines begin to blur. [OC-Centric]
1. Chapter 1

_Look who just started another fic!_

 _...Please. Somebody stop me._

* * *

The Meltdown.

An incident that came about due to prejudices revolving a certain type of quirk, and resulted in the deaths of dozens of people, hero and civilian alike.

An incident that could have been completely avoided, if only someone hadn't said the wrong thing to the wrong person at the wrong time.

An incident that shook not only the Hero community, but also the entire nation, due to the nature of the tragedy.

An incident that-

"Aha! I knew I'd find you here."

A small shriek escaped my lips, and I ended up dropping the book I was holding, only for it to land on my bare foot. "Ow!" I hissed as I quickly crouched down to cradle my poor aching foot, while the person who had so rudely snuck up on me began to laugh. "Not funny, Nee-san."

"Seeing you make a mess out of yourself is always funny, Rinko," my sister stated as a matter of factly as she reached down to pick up the thick book that had fallen on the floor.

"I'll-"

"I can get it myself, I can get it myself," she assured me, swiping the book away before I could get it, and I couldn't help but feel the slightest bit nervous and hope she didn't notice what the book was. "Honestly Rinko, you need to stop spending so much time here... You're graduating soon and..."

My sister stopped talking, her brown eyes growing wide for a moment before heaving a sigh and running her hand over the hardbound cover.

She noticed.

Of course she noticed.

"Rinko... You're going through these again?"

The sadness in her voice had guilt welling up in me and had me averting my gaze as I righted myself again. All of a sudden, the wall clock was the most interesting thing in the room.

Another sigh escaped my sister. "I'm not mad, Rinko," she softly hummed, and I could hear her make her way over to me. Her hands then rested on either side of my face and she gently turned me to face her. Silver hair she had allowed to grow long and had begun to curl at the ends over the last three years. Dark eyes that were just a shade deeper than hazel. Save for her hair color and the mole resting just above her left eyebrow, my sister looked a lot like our mom.

I didn't resist my sister, but I could feel the muscles on my forehead begin to ache with how I was frowning.

How long had I been frowning anyway?

"Do you want to talk about it?"

I shook my head.

A smile appeared on her face, probably an effort to make me feel better, but she was obviously sad. Whether it was because I didn't want to open up or because I was going through that old book again, I wasn't quite sure. Maybe it was one of them, maybe it was both.

"Alright, but if you ever wanna talk..."

"I'll let you know," I told her, nodding a bit, and somehow, that made my sister feel a bit better.

"Good," she said as she placed the book on the nearby table. "Anyway, I came looking for you to tell you dinner's ready. Moku's already at the table, and if you don't want to clean up a huge mess, then you better join us outside."

"I'll be there in a minute."

"Make sure it's just one," she chuckled as she headed out the door, only for her wheelchair to squeak against the polished floorboards.

Once she had left the room, I let out the breath I had been holding and made my way to the worn book I had been going through. I picked it up, planning on putting it back on the shelf where it belonged, but I had somehow convinced myself that one last look wouldn't hurt and opened it. I easily turned to the pages I was looking for, the paper having already browned and creased at that specific page, evidence that I had already poured over its contents numerous times over the last few years.

The book was, essentially, a scrapbook of sorts, filled with photos and news clippings of heroes that my sister and I had started compiling ever since we were little. We would dream together of being heroes ourselves, helping people and defeating villains. We would plan out or hero costumes together and share hero name ideas. We would play heroes and villains, and pretend that we were saving the day.

Eventually though, we outgrew those games. While I was in the middle of my elementary years, my sister went on ahead to becoming a _real_ hero, a Pro Hero, but even when she was putting real villains in jail, she would still help me add to the scrapbook. Our scrapbooking came to an abrupt end though, thanks to the Meltdown, and incidentally, articles from that disaster were the last pieces we bothered to add, leaving nearly half of the pages of the bound book empty.

Why I bothered rereading the news clippings focusing on the tragedy was still a mystery to me, after all these years. No matter how many times I went through these articles, they weren't ever going to change. What's done was done, and the words printed on the paper pasted on the leaves of the book were never going to read anything else but-

 _Heroes Wave and Miss Matter join body count, Absorbam out of commission._

 _Local Pro Heroes Wave and wife, Miss Matter – civilian names Shimizu Kaito and Nina, respectively – were among the several heroes who had lost their lives in the encounter last night. The couple left behind three children – Ushio, 20, Rinko, 11, and Moku, 6. According to witness, the family had been on their way out for dinner when Miss Matter went on a rampage. Wave and daughter, Ushio – an up and coming hero named Absrobam – stepped in to protect civilians, but the former was fatally wounded after protecting Rinko and Moku. Ushio was severely wounded as well during Miss Matter's attacks, suffering spinal damage that ended her short career as a Pro Hero._

As if on cue, I heard my sister holler all the way from the dining room, her surprisingly loud voice making me jump and nearly drop the book. "Rinko! If you don't come out here in five!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" I yelled back, quickly shutting the scrapbook and shoving it into the only empty space on the shelf before rushing out. I didn't need to read the rest of it anyway. I practically had it memorized.

The article would then carry on to detail what had happened that led up to the tragedy. Apparently, a man that had a mind-control quirk had be ostracized by his peers, his quirk having been perceived as something a villain would have. The prejudices surrounding his quirk made it difficult for him to socialize, to work – to live, in general. He eventually became fed up with the terrible way people were treating him, and when someone had made another ill comment regarding him and his quirk, he simply snapped. He started using his quirk to drive people into inciting chaos, destruction and death.

It was terrible.

And my mother, ever the stubborn paragon of virtue, had made the wrong decision of helping the man out when he stumbled in front of us that night.


	2. Chapter 2

_And my mother, ever the stubborn paragon of virtue, had made the wrong decision of helping the man out when he stumbled in front of us that night._

=oOo=

Knowing my sister, it was a miracle in and of itself that I had managed to reach the dining room without having her to come back and personally drag me out by force. When I got there, I spotted Ushio-nee balancing a bowl of food on her lap as she carefully wheeled her way to the table, taking care not to spill its contents. I was about to go and help her, but a head of blonde hair beat me to it.

"Thank you very much, Moku," my sister chirped, letting our little brother help her out before turning to me. "So you finally decided to join us, huh?"

"Well, I was gonna make it to the table one way or the other," I hummed with a shrug as the two of us took our spot at the table.

Dinner went without a hitch, and after telling Moku to get ready for bed, Ushio-nee opted to stay behind and keep me company while I cleaned after the meal. However, if the past few days had been any indication of how the rest of this would pan out, I was already starting to feel exhausted.

"Rinko, have you decided on a high school yet?"

It was a simple enough question, a question she had started asking ever since I had entered my last year in middle school, but it wasn't an easy question to answer, especially when my sister was a teacher at one of the most prestigious hero schools in Japan – the one and only UA. How she had landed the job two years ago despite everything, I would never know, and whenever I asked, she'd always laugh and say it was because of her winning personality.

She did _not_ have a winning personality.

Anyway, there was always a bit of pressure whenever the topic of high school came up, and though our younger brother, who was about to enter middle school next year, already had his heart set on going to UA and becoming a Pro Hero, I was a different case. Despite all my dreaming back when I was a kid, I didn't want to be a Hero.

Heroes were selfish and inconsiderate and reckless.

I didn't want to be someone like that.

When I didn't answer, my sister continued to fill the silence. "You know, UA is going to start accepting applicants soon," she informed me. "Do you want me to get you a form?"

"Nee-san…" I grumbled as I turned to her, no doubt in my mind a frown already set on my face. "We've talked about this. I don't want to be a Hero."

"I know, I know," she assured me, raising her hands up in front of her in defense. "But at the very least apply. UA still has a very solid general studies program, you know. Even in that aspect, it's still one of the best. If you're planning on going to college, UA is a good choice too."

I made a face, knowing she was right. Hero school or not, UA was still prestigious, and graduating from a school like that could do me wonders in the future. "Yeah, yeah," I huffed. "You've told me that, like, a hundred times already."

"And each time you just shrugged me off," she sighed. "It's just… promise me you'll take the entrance exam?"

"For the general studies program, you mean," I clarified, and that earned me a look from my sister. "What? I'm not taking the test for the hero program, Nee-san. I don't want to."

"Rinko, please?" she insisted, clasping her hands to gether. "Just this one hero entrance exam. You can apply wherever for whatever, but please take the hero entrance exam for UA."

I clicked my tongue. "What for?" I asked. "It's not like I can pass the exam, and even in the off chance I _do_ pass, I'd still turn it down."

"That's fine," my sister acquiesced, nodding firmly, her serious tone causing me to pause. "If that's what you really want, then that's fine with me. All I want is to provide you and Moku with all the opportunities I can for the two of you to be able to say that you lived your lives without any regrets…" Ushio-nee then gestured to herself, and I could feel the pit of my stomach grow cold.

Times like these, Ushio-nee _really_ looked a lot like mom.

The period of time directly following our parents' death had been a difficult one, but it had been particularly draining for my sister. During the incident four years ago, a blow to her spine had rendered her paralyzed from the waist down and effectively ended her short career as a Pro Hero – her dream. Losing our parents and losing her dream, those two were more than enough to crush her, but then authorities had had to bring up who would serve as Moku and I's guardian.

Normally, Ushio-nee would have been recognized, being our sister and a legal adult, but due to the injuries she had sustained and her apparent disability, people doubted if she was capable of taking on the responsibility of caring for two children. My sister had needed to prove that she could support me and Moku; otherwise, she would have had to let some distant relative look after us until she was deemed fit to handle that kind of responsibility. But even back then, Ushio-nee had understood that she wouldn't able to use her legs again, and if she didn't fight for us right then and there, she'd also be losing the only family she had left.

It had been a lengthy debate, and honestly, I couldn't remember what had exactly happened during that time. All I knew was that Ushio-nee would spend a lot of nights crying by herself in the kitchen when she thought Moku and I had already gone to bed. Somehow though, Ushio-nee won the case, and Moku and I got to stay with her. Ever since then, she worked herself to the bone to support us in every way possible.

My shoulders sagged. Ushio-nee had already done so much for us, for Moku, for me, and had never asked for anything in return.

Aside from this one thing.

This one thing I didn't want to do.

Guilt started to well up inside me for denying her the one thing she had ever asked me of. What kind of ungrateful sister was I? If it was just that exam, then I guess it wouldn't hurt…

"As I am now, I doubt I can do much, but I'll do what I can. And if this body permits it, I'll go beyond that, plus ultra."

Before I knew it, a snort had already escaped my lips and all my grim thoughts came to a screeching halt. "You just _had_ to ruin it with the school motto, didn't you?" I huffed with a sharp shake of my head as I turned my attention back to the dirty dishes still sitting in the sink in front of me.

"Oh, wait, did I almost get you? Ah, shit, forget I said it then! Please take the exam, Rinko," she insisted. "Please? For me?"

"…I'll think about it."

A gasp of surprise. "Really? You'll do it?"

"I said I'll _think_ about it, Ushio-nee."

"Which is _your_ way of saying you'll _do_ it."

"…Shut up."


End file.
